A Biogeochemical Study of Heavy Metal Leaching from Coal Fly Ash Disposed in Yeongdong Coal-Fired Power Plant

Fly ashes derived from coal fired power plants have unique chemical and mineralogical characteristics. The objective of this research was to study how indigenous bacteria affected heavy metal leaching in fly ash slurry during the fly ash-seawater interactions in the ash pond located in Yeongdong seashore, Korea. The in-situ pH of ash pond seawater was 6.3-8.5. For this study, three sites of the ash pond were chosen to collect a sample of fly ash slurry. Three samples that had a mix of fly ash (0.4 L) and seawater (1.6 L) were collected at each site. First sample was autoclaved (120 degrees C, 2.5 atm), second one was inoculated with glucose to stimulate the microbial activity, and the last sample was kept in the natural condition. Compared with other samples including autoclaved and natural samples, the glucose added sample showed sharp increase in its alkalinity after 15 days, cation concentration change such as Ca, Mg, and K seemed to increase in early stage, and then decrease 15 days later in slurry solution of glucose added sample, and a possibly considerable decrease in SO42- in the fly ash slurry samples when glucose was added to stimulate the microbial activity. Geochemical data of this study is likely to be related to the activity of bacteria at the ash pond. The result may be used to understand about the characteristic of bacteria.